Sunday, December 2, 2012

House Report Says Corzine’s Risky Bets Aided MF Global’s Fall - (www.nytimes.com)
Congressional investigators
on Wednesday took aim at a former colleague, Jon
S. Corzine, blaming the onetime senator’s risk-taking at MF
Global for accelerating the brokerage firm’s demise. In
excerpts from a broader MF Global report that is to be released on Thursday,
Republican members of a Congressional panel outlined a withering critique of
Mr. Corzine’s 19-month reign at the firm. Mr. Corzine, a former Democratic
senator and governor from New Jersey, resigned as MF Global’s chief executive
last fall after the firm raided customer accounts during a futile fight for
survival.

U.S. Postal Service on a ‘Tightrope’ Lost $15.9 Billion - (www.bloomberg.com) The U.S. Postal
Service said its net loss last year widened to $15.9 billion,
more than the $15 billion it had projected, as mail volume continued to drop,
falling 5 percent. Without action by Congress, the service will run out of cash
on Oct. 15, 2013, after it makes a required workers compensation payment to the
U.S. Labor Department and before revenue typically jumps with holiday-season
mailing, Chief Financial Officer Joe Corbett said today. The service, whose
fiscal year ends Sept. 30, lost $5.1 billion a year earlier. It announced the
2012 net loss at a meeting at its Washington headquarters. “We are walking a
financial tightrope,” Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said at the meeting.
“Will we ever stop delivering the mail? It will never happen. We are simply too
important to the economy and the flow of commerce.”

17% of FHA
loans delinquent in September, bailout coming - (www.ochousingnews.com) Everyone knew this was
coming. The FHA needs a bailout. When the final tally of losses at the FHA
come in, everyone will act surprised. Nobody paying careful attention to what
the FHA is doing will be shocked. They are absorbing the losses the banks could
not by insuring loans with low down payments in a declining market. No private
lender or mortgage insurer would do this because the losses would put them out
of business. Instead these losses will be absorbed by the US taxpayer — by you.
FHA has been the lender of last resort since its inception.

FHA Nears Need for Taxpayer Funds - (online.wsj.com) The Federal Housing Administration is expected
to report this week it could exhaust its reserves because of rising mortgage
delinquencies, according to people familiar with the agency's finances, a
development that could result in the agency needing to draw on taxpayer funding
for the first time in its 78-year history. Such a report would likely set off a
political fight over the government's role in housing, as it raises the
prospect of billions of dollars being added to the U.S. government's effort to
stabilize the hard-hit sector in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis,
which already includes $137 billion spent to bail out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Together with Fannie and
Freddie, federal agencies are backing nearly nine in 10 new mortgages.

The
FHA is giving loans to Ponzis to reenter the housing market - (www.ochousingnews.com) Do we really want to let
Ponzis back into the housing market? There is a large group of people who’ve
proven to be completely irresponsible with mortgage debt as evidenced by my
daily debtor debacles. I wrote yesterday that Pent-up demand from boomerang buyers may not
materialize, but isn’t stopping the FHA from trying. I have no
problem with peak buyers whose only mistake was poor timing from reentering the
housing market, but do we really want to let the irresponsible Ponzis back in?
And do we as taxpayers want to be on the hook when they resume their old
habits? That’s where the FHA is headed. It shouldn’t be surprising that Ponzis
want to own another cash cow. They were handsomely rewarded for owning last
time.